Old and New Methods of Initiation

Schmidt Number: S-4758

On-line since: 30th June, 2010

LECTURE SIX

Dornach,
11 February 1922

Today
[ Note 1]
I should like to discuss a theme which can perhaps lead
to some points of view from which to assess present-day cultural and
spiritual life in connection with what has gone before in human
evolution. As I have often said, cultural life since the first third
of the fifteenth century is entirely different from that of earlier
times, and now we are faced with the necessity to return, but in full
consciousness and with deep thought, to an understanding of the
spiritual part of our life in the cosmos. The spiritual part of our
life in the cosmos was understood in ancient times by an instinctive
clairvoyance, and this was the case most of all in the most ancient
ages of earthly civilization. Then the capacity to push through to
the spirit receded more and more, until a time came when mankind
needed a new impetus, whereupon the Mystery of Golgotha took
place.

Today I
should like to mention that, before the Mystery of Golgotha, people
who were concerned with spiritual life looked to those institutions
known in general human cultural life as the Mysteries. In those most
ancient days of human evolution it was unthinkable that spiritual
vision and spiritual knowledge could have any other source than the
Mysteries. When we try to observe the consciousness of those who
turned to the Mysteries in those ancient days, if knowledge was what
they desired, we arrive at the following picture: All external
knowledge not stemming from the Mysteries, all intellectual knowledge
gained by human beings by themselves, did not come into being until
the later part of the Greek era. Only then did people want to
discover certain truths out of themselves, without the help of the
Mysteries. That is why the course of scientific development is
reckoned, by those who understand these things, to have started in
the time of Thales.
[ Note 2]
I have discussed this in my book
Riddles of Philosophy.
[ Note 3]
Before that time knowledge
was sought with the help of the Mysteries. When we examine the
consciousness on which this was founded, we discover that those who
conducted the Mysteries, and also their pupils, saw something most
important in what they called ‘the prince of this world’
— they meant the earth — as opposed to the princes
— that is, the spiritual beings — of other worlds.

In
today's language, ‘the prince of this world’, as he lived
in the consciousness of ancient times, would be called the being of
Ahriman. The being of Ahriman would more or less be equivalent to
this prince of earthly life. The spiritual revelations which can be
derived from ‘the prince of this world’ are none other
than those of intellectual knowledge. The leaders of the Mysteries
would certainly have considered all that lived in the knowledge that
grew up in Greece outside the Mysteries to have been inspired by
‘the prince of this world’. In contrast, they saw it as
the task of the Mysteries to lead human beings towards a spiritual
vision which tends away from ‘the prince of this world’,
which tends to lead human souls into realms which are not ruled by
‘the prince of this world’. We cannot help but make use
of such expressions in order to show properly what is meant, and no
one should think that there is anything superstitious about using
these expressions.

Let me
give you a picture of what someone initiated in the ancient Greek, or
the Egyptian, or Persian Mysteries would have thought in those old
days about ‘the prince of this world’. We have to
understand that these people also spoke about the Christ-being,
though they used other names. Using the name of Christ is not the
only way of speaking about the Christ-being. We naturally use the
name of Christ when we want to speak about the Christ-being, for
Christ to us actually means that Being who underwent the Mystery of
Golgotha and united himself with earthly civilization. Before the
Mystery of Golgotha this Being was not yet united with earthly
civilization. He still lived as the great Sun-being outside the
earthly world. The Mystery of Golgotha denotes the uniting with the
earthly world of this Being who lived outside the earthly world. But
those initiated in the Mysteries certainly knew this Being who lived
outside the earthly world. And the being known as ‘the prince
of this world’ — that ahrimanic being — also knew
him. That being — I am describing what lived in the
consciousness of the initiates — felt himself to be the lord of
the earth. He considered that whatever human beings possessed through
the forces of the earth was something they had from him. But he knew
that the Christ-being lived outside the earth and also had an
influence on human life by way of the Mysteries, whose teachings were
then popularized and brought amongst the peoples.

To
describe more closely what lived in their consciousness, we may say
that the initiates in the Mysteries thought as follows: The chief
influence of ‘the prince of this world’ is on the
physical bodies of human beings. These wholly do his bidding and he
feels he is the lord of human physical bodies. But he could not feel
himself to be the lord of the etheric and astral natures of human
beings, of their life-bodies and their souls. The life-body and the
soul were seen to be under the influence of a Being who lived outside
the earth; the forces of the Christ-being had always been seen to
flow into these. But with the forces of their own soul human beings
were quite unable to receive what ought to flow into them from the
Christ-being. They could only do so by turning to what the Mystery
initiate received after the proper preparation. The Mysteries were
seen to take hold of what came from outside the earth and pass it on
to human beings. So ‘the prince of this world’ said to
himself: Here on earth I am the master. From the earth the physical
bodies of human beings draw their forces, and one of these forces is
the human earthly intellect. Here I am the master and nothing can
contest this here on earth. By way of the Mysteries, something from
outside the earth flows into it. This I will tolerate.

But
‘the prince of this world’ rebelled against the Mystery
of Golgotha because from then on he would have had to share his
supremacy with the Christ who descended to the earth through the
Mystery of Golgotha. ‘The prince of this world’ felt the
Christ to be a rival in his mastery of the earth. He would have
tolerated the sharing of the rulership with another being from
outside the earth, but he would not tolerate a rival here within the
earthly realm.

Here,
then, out of the spirit of the ancient Mysteries, we have an
indication of the real opposition of ‘the prince of this
world’ towards the Christ. Among those with knowledge about
such things this opposition was strongly felt throughout the Middle
Ages until well into the fifteenth century. Any mention of ‘the
prince of this world’ and of the Christ took it into account.
There was a certain awareness of two dominions. One of these had
rightfully ruled the bodily nature of man before the Mystery of
Golgotha, but since then this sovereignty over the bodily nature of
man has had to be shared with the other, with the Christ. For now
Christ no longer influences only man's soul element, that is, his
astral and etheric bodies; his purpose is now to influence also man's
physical bodily nature, or rather whatever is expressed by this
physical bodily nature, namely, everything to do with the intellect
and with man's own capacities in the widest sense. Christ should live
in every aspect of human nature. This is what entered into mankind
through the Mystery of Golgotha.

Prior to
the Mystery of Golgotha it never occurred to those who knew about
such things to seek knowledge of external matters in any sphere which
the human head or even the other soul or heart forces can reach on
their own. Such things were left to the Mysteries. So before the
Mystery of Golgotha there was certainly a strong awareness of the
distinction between earthly wisdom and earthly sensing on the one
hand, and a sensing of super-earthly forces on the other. The unique
spiritual configuration of the early medieval centuries is only
comprehensible in the light of a clear understanding of this
fact.

Now this
fact can be greatly clarified by something that was regarded as being
of paramount importance in very many Mystery centres. The preparation
and subsequent trials undergone by the Mystery pupils on the path of
initiation varied, of course, in the different centres. But these
variations were only really like the different paths up a mountain
which, despite their different routes, all lead to one and the same
summit in the end. They all led to one and the same Mystery goal.
Despite the modifications, there were two measures within the
Mysteries which every pupil had to undergo and which could be termed
as being of paramount importance. These were, on the one hand, the
draught of forgetfulness and, on the other hand, something which
worked on the human being during the Mystery procedures like a
powerful shock — like entering into a powerful fear. It is no
longer permissible to use either of these for the purpose of
achieving higher super-sensible knowledge. Today everything has to
take place in the realm of soul and spirit, whereas the Mystery
pupils in ancient times underwent procedures which always had to call
on their physical body. What is achieved today is similar, but higher
knowledge must now be striven for in the sphere of consciousness
only, whereas in earlier times it took place in the sphere of
instincts and dreams. Because all the Mysteries included something
akin to the draught of forgetfulness and also something akin to the
physical shock, the pupils’ external intellect was damped down.
This intellect was less clear than it is today, but it nevertheless
held sway in connection with everything relating to the external
world.

So the
pupil was led into a dulled consciousness both by the draught of
forgetfulness and by the shock, which might be compared with the
inducement of a state of fear. What was the significance of the
draught of forgetfulness? The point was not the forgetting, though
the pupil did forget. The effect it was to have came from its
ceremonial preparation, from the special way it was mixed, to the
accompaniment of certain preparations before it was drunk by the
pupil. It was definitely a physical draught which, through the way it
was served, brought it about that the pupil forgot the whole of his
life since birth. This is something which is achieved nowadays
through development in the realm of soul and spirit. Nowadays a clear
consciousness of a great tableau of life encompassing everything that
has occurred since birth is first conjured up. This is then
suppressed and, in consequence, the human being is led into the
spiritual form of his life before birth, or before conception. The
same was achieved in a more physical way through the ancient draught
of forgetfulness.

But the
forgetting was not the essential point. Negative things are never the
essential point. The positive thing achieved was that the pupil's
thinking became more mobile and more intense. At the same time it
became less clear. It became dreamy because the effect was achieved
by influencing the physical organism. The effect of the draught of
forgetfulness on the physical organism — it can be exactly
described — was that the brain, if I may put it this way,
became more fluid than it is in everyday life. Because the brain was
made more fluid, because the pupil began to think more with his
cerebral fluid than with the solid parts of the brain, his thoughts
became more mobile and more intense.

Nowadays
this must be achieved more directly, by means of developing soul and
spirit as described in my book
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
and in the second part of
Occult Science.
But in those days
the brain was made more fluid by external influences. The goal was to
make the spirit and soul element of the pupil — as it was
before he made the connection with a physical body through
conception: in other words, as it is in the spiritual world —
capable once more of penetrating through the brain. This is the
essential point.

In a
drawing it would look like this. Suppose this is the mass of the
brain (green). Once the human being has been born his spirit and soul
element stops short before it (red). The brain is so constituted that
the human being's inner spirit and soul element cannot pass through
the brain. In his brain the human being is not filled with his spirit
and soul element. Instead, external perceptions can enter and make
themselves felt in the brain through the senses — let me draw
an eye here. Put another way, the constitution of the brain is such
today that the eternal aspect of the human being cannot rise up into
it. Instead, external impressions can enter. By being given the
draught of forgetfulness the pupil gained the possibility of
receiving into his brain what was his spiritual and soul element
before conception or before birth (red). That is the one side.

The other
side is the shock which was administered to the pupil. Think how a
shock affects human beings. They are as though paralysed. There can
be shocks which bring about the paralysis of the whole human being. A
paralysed person, a cataleptic person, cannot move about because his
muscles are rigid. But in a human being who can go about his life in
the ordinary way, his body absorbs this eternal aspect (white with
red). In our blood, in our muscles down below, the element of spirit
and soul, the eternal element, is absorbed. But because of this it
cannot be perceived. It cannot penetrate the brain, but lower down it
is absorbed. It cannot be perceived, but when the muscles go rigid it
steps out freely as a matter of course.

The
rigidity of the muscles was brought about by the effect of the shock.
As a result, the element of spirit and soul was not absorbed by the
rest of the organism — apart from the brain — but was
freed. So now the spirit and soul element was in the brain because
the brain had been softened by the draught of forgetfulness, while
the rest of the organism was at the same time prevented from
absorbing it. Thus the element of spirit and soul came to be
perceived. From two sides came the possibility of perceiving the
element of spirit and soul. In ordinary life the human being was
incapable of perceiving it because the brain, with which everything
else was perceived, was unable to take it in; it could not enter the
brain. Neither could it be perceived from the rest of the organism,
the will and so on, for the rest of the organism had absorbed it. But
now the pupil's brain was softened — of course, only for the
moment at which knowledge was to enter. So his element of spirit and
soul rushed into his brain. Meanwhile, the rest of his body became
rigid so that it could not absorb the spirit and soul element. There
the pupil stood, with his softened brain on the one side and a
rigidified organic system on the other, as though encased in a
capsule. There he stood in his spirit and his soul which had been
given to him from two sides.

This is
the aim of these procedures which are described in such a practical
manner. I must expressly point out, though, that these things cannot
be imitated nowadays. People would, anyway, be at a loss as to how to
imitate them and, if they tried, the result would not be agreeable.
These days all such things have to be attained by working with soul
and spirit. But of the past it can certainly be said: Having been
enabled to perceive their element of spirit and soul by partaking of
the draught of forgetfulness and by being shocked into physical
rigidity, the pupils in the Mysteries became
‘Christians’. In the Mysteries they became
Christians.

The early
fathers of the church were certainly aware of this. But today people
are not told about it, or it is even denied. But the early church
fathers knew that human beings had been made Christians through the
Mysteries. There are passages in the writings of the early church fathers
[ Note 4]
which state that Heraclitus and Socrates, though
they lived before the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, were
Christians, even though they were called atheists in their own time.
I have often quoted from such passages in the writings of the early
church fathers. It was the view of the ancient Mystery leaders and
initiates that ‘the prince of this world’ was not
interested in that human being who came forth out of the other; he
left this human being to Christ. But he did not want Christ to come
down to the earth in order to take hold of the human being in his
entirety. This is described in the gospels in the way it is said that
the demons, the lower servants of ‘the prince of this
world’, when they heard that Christ had come, began to rebel.
They recognized him and were furious.

We have
to understand, when speaking about earthly evolution, that the
spiritual powers whose influence on the human physical body was
perfectly legitimate before the Mystery of Golgotha had, after the
Mystery of Golgotha, to share this influence with the Christ. This is
an essential aspect of the Mystery of Golgotha. That is why in the
Middle Ages ‘the prince of this world’ came to be called
‘the unlawful prince of this world’. This expression
would not have been justified in the ancient heathen world but when
it came to be used in the Middle Ages it was a correct title,
befitting the circumstances.

The
essential aspect of all this, with regard to the spiritual evolution
of mankind, is that in more ancient times the physical body was
withdrawn from the element of spirit and soul. The working of the
brain was counteracted because the brain was softened by the draught
of forgetfulness, and the powers of absorption of the rest of the
organism were counteracted by the hardening of the rest of the
organism by means of the shock. So in these older times the body was
withdrawn from the element of spirit and soul.

Today,
our aspiration is not to withdraw the body but to draw out the
spirit, by strengthening and enhancing our forces of spirit and soul.
The opposite of what used to take place must happen now; now the
spirit must be drawn out. No changes must be allowed to take place in
the physical, bodily aspect. Since the fifteenth century the human
being has been organized in such a way that changes in the physical
body, of the kind that were customary in those of Mystery pupils,
would denote a condition of sickness. It would be a pathological
condition, which must not be allowed to come about in normal
development.

I am
describing all this in order to give you an idea of what is to be
understood by the concept of ‘the prince of this world’,
which keeps recurring in olden times. ‘The prince of this
world’, who in the Middle Ages became ‘the unlawful
prince of this world’, is an Ahriman-like being. We can find
such a being everywhere, in external nature and in the inner being of
man. Indeed, only when we are in a position to find such a being in
its manifestation both in external nature and in the inner being of
man can we gradually come to an understanding of its essence.

Look at
external nature. You will find there two contrasts, but what matters
is to be able to sense the essence of these contrasts. Think of the
blue sky. Of course in southern climes the blue sky must be seen
rather differently than is the case here. When the envelope of air
round the earth is filled by the effect of the sun, this is not the
pure essence of the blue sky, for it is then overcast with something
else. But the pure effect of the blue sky is that of coldness. The
blue sky as such is cold. What you sense in the coldness of the blue
sky, unmitigated by earthly sultriness — this is an
all-embracing ahrimanic influence. The ahrimanic influence causes
space to be petrified, congealed into blueness. Take note of this
expression! It is unusual, but if you gradually come to sense what it
means to say that space is petrified, congealed into blueness, you
will have discovered the ahrimanic tendency in external nature.

The
contrasting effect is that of the reddish, yellowish clouds sailing
past. The effect is one of warmth, exactly the opposite. This, too,
can be disguised by the coldness of the earth's environment but, all
in all, a cloud lined with red, a yellowish cloud, has something warm
about it. This is the contrasting effect, the effect of air. Between
these two polar opposites something takes place, and that is what
benefits the earthly life of man. We can say, then, that the effect
on the earth of space petrified, congealed into blueness was seen in
the Middle Ages to be the cosmic working of ‘the prince of this
world’.

And when
we look into human beings we find that they can be in a condition
which makes them pale. You know how there is something livid,
something blueish about palor in human beings. When human beings turn
pale, when they feel their way into coldness, they are then sensing
something ahrimanic working in them. Flushed redness, on the other
hand, shows something luciferic at work in their nature. Out of all
these details together we can gradually build up a full picture of
what this ahrimanic being, ‘the prince of this world’,
really is. People's pallid, often so clever, thoughts, running along
always in straight lines — the whole intellectual aspect of man
— this is the ahrimanic influence, the influence of ‘the
prince of this world’, on the working of the human head.

These
things must be understood from the point of view of spirit and soul.
In the livid blueness, in the way human beings grow pale, in the way
they devour themselves inwardly and feel their way into coldness, in
the way they are filled with pale, abstract thoughts — in all
this we have to feel the ahrimanic influence, the rulership of
‘the prince of this world’. And then we have to feel the
warming influence of the Christ-impulse.

For the
present time it is rather revealing and also necessary to recognize
how different was initiation in ancient times compared with the
principle of initiation today. There are certainly people today who
still lack the courage to approach the Anthroposophical Movement but
who have a deep longing for what, in the end, only the
Anthroposophical Movement can give. They long for a transformation of
their soul, after which they would find their way to the knowledge
they seek. Obviously the greater part of mankind today rejects this
transformation of the soul and imagines that any knowledge man is
capable of reaching can be achieved through the ordinary state of
soul which is brought about by our ordinary education and through our
ordinary life. On my last tour I met a man who was greatly concerned
to achieve some knowledge through the philosophical possibilities
offered today, but not through Anthroposophy. He said that it would
be interesting and important to ascertain in Anthroposophy how this
higher knowledge might be achieved, for everywhere — this
‘everywhere’ is very relative, of course — the
different world views were recognizing that the achievement of real
knowledge was a matter not only of the intellect but also of the
will. And in the ancient Mysteries, too, it was a matter of
transforming the will.

In the
description of the ancient Mysteries in my book
Christianity as Mystical Fact[ Note 5]
you will find that the decisive,
radical difference between the ancient striving for knowledge and
that of today lies in the fact that in ancient times it was necessary
to prepare the will. The will had to be turned in a direction
different from that of ordinary life. The will had to be purged,
purified; it had to be transformed and lifted to a higher stage. The
pupil had to give a new direction to his everyday will, which was
dominated by ‘the prince of this world’. Through
cultivation of his will, the pupil had to reach the point at which
knowledge can be attained. Today, on the other hand, people imagine
that we can stop at whatever point we have reached through our
ordinary studies. And our intellectual life is merely the product of
the ordinary configuration of our brain. If it is softened, as I have
indicated, there is a strong possibility that thoughts can be willed,
that everywhere thoughts can be willed. And when will becomes
conscious through the rigidifying of the body, then thoughts appear
in the will itself. This can also happen today when, on the path I
have described, knowledge of higher worlds has become possible.

It is a
very important sign today that once more there are people who know
that the intellect alone is not enough and that it is necessary to
cultivate the will in order to reach whatever knowledge is possible
for man. So by looking at what is going on in a general way we come
to see that a great many people are approaching who want to hear
about spiritual matters. Also, from things which are shown to us as
we go along, we see that there are people who once again realize that
the will must be cultivated, if knowledge is to be achieved. All this
goes to show that there is an urgent need for spiritual life today.
Unfortunately, though, because people lack the courage to approach
Anthroposophy, because they think Anthroposophy is something
peculiar, they imagine that they can achieve what they are searching
for along some other path. The world will have to come to the
conviction that what is wanted can only be achieved on the
anthroposophical path. Please do not misunderstand me. It is not my
intention to maintain that what Anthroposophy has revealed so far is
necessarily generally valid or particularly obvious. But I want to
point out the importance of the direction in which Anthroposophy is
going. This is what can lead to the satisfaction of the powerful
longing that exists today, a longing which must be satisfied if human
civilization is to move forward at all.